Lamborghini Gallardo 2006 Thermostat Housing on 2040-parts.com

Tokyo motor show 2011 - a walkaround review

Two years ago, in the midst of the worldwide financial crash, the 2009 Tokyo motor show felt like a tiny regional event as Western manufacturers abandoned ship. Not this year. The 2011 Tokyo motor show was different, with Audi (A1 Sportback), BMW (ActiveHybrid 5) and VW (Cross Coupe concept and Passat Alltrack) all unveiling new metal.

Who's Where: Brett Patterson and Rohan Saparamadu join Geely’s Shanghai studio

Brett Patterson and Rohan Saparamadu have joined Geely as chief designers, based in Shanghai. They will both report to the company's design director Ken Ma. Patterson most recently worked as a contract designer at GM Europe's Design Center, Rüsslesheim, and has worked for GM for total of 14 years on a wide range of vehicle development programmes in Australia, Germany, Sweden and USA.

17,000 solar panels to power Toyota’s Derbyshire plant

Toyota’s manufacturing plant at Burnaston in Derbyshire, where the Auris and Avensis are built, will install the biggest solar panel system yet seen in a UK car plant.  British Gas, which will stump up the £10 million cost of installing the solar panels, and Toyota are working together to save 2000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year. Once the solar panels are installed, they claim it will save enough energy to build approximately 7000 cars a year.